While there is a general mood that college football should expand its playoff from the current 12-team format, there is still no agreement on exactly how to do it.
The only consensus the various Power Four commissioners have come to is how to seed teams, with a straight-seeding model set to be implemented starting this season, ending the sometimes-confusing difference between seedings and rankings we saw last year.
But as to how many teams there should be going forward, there is still considerable debate, as there is on how to award places in the postseason, and to whom based on what criteria.
Will it stay at 12 teams? Will it expand to 14, or even 16 teams? Who gets automatic places, and how many?
And they are working on something of a deadline, as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said this offseason that media partner ESPN must be informed of what the 2026 playoff will look like by the end of November.
Big questions face college football’s decision makers, and little in the way of answers with just over a month until the start of the 2025 season.
For most of the offseason, it appeared the SEC was in line with the Big Ten on how to expand the playoff and who to include in it.
That plan called for itself and the Big Ten to be awarded four automatic qualifiers each in every future playoff and for the ACC and Big 12 to both be given two each.
Then came some backlash from other conferences, and apparently from the SEC’s own football coaches internally, and now it appears the league is taking a different view.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last week his conference is open to different playoff formats, including a 5-7, 5-9, or 5-11, with the five in each case referring to the number of automatic qualifiers for conference champions and the other number being at-large bids.
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